Smallest gaming console ever. EVER!

That’s it… the controller and the video game system all in one. This is the standalone version of [Rossum’s] RBox. We looked in on the prototype in June but that was using a bulky development board. You can see the CR1632 button battery, which powers the device for about four hours, sandwiched in between the joystick and the mainboard. Exiting the image on the right are cables used to connect mono-audio and video to a TV via RCA connectors. There’s no port for interchangeable cartridges which means that all game data must be programmed into the ARM Cortex M0 processors. See [Rossum’s] demo video after the break.

@s133p : Define “ARM Chip” , ARM sells cores which are licensed by various manufacturers and sold in various forms. There are numerous offerings that use ARM technology but theres no “ARM Chip” being sold by ARM. The One Rossum used for prototyping is called LPCXpresso , its an ARM offering from Philips which comes with its own development tools i.e: programmer , debugger , Compiler etc.

Now THAT is cool :) Great job on the build and I am incredibly jealous. I’m gonna have to dump my jagawatch project into the bottom drawer lol. Now I’ve got to get back to finishing the article :) Thanks builders and HaD!!!

The LPC chip used in this project does not support USB. Instead you can program it using the built in bootloader over a USART. In other words you only need a RS-232 to TTL converter to program this part.

Nicely exemplifying the conundrum of the post-PC world – “we can hack up some hardware that will work fairly easily; but who will write software for it (and what good will it be if nigh-on nobody will, past a demo or two)?”. And the only reason I’m not saying “post-micro world” is ’cause they pretty much were the only hardware to program for long enough back then that SW support was not an issue…

Many smaller Cortex-M microcontrollers do not have JTAG but are instead using the newer SWD (Serial Wire Debug) protocol invented (and documented) by ARM. OpenOCD support for SWD is not quite there yet, but using e.g. a Versaloon adapter it could be doable. (Separate patches at versaloon.com however.)

This is a wonderfull idea, but it strikes me it could be taken futher.
How about a video game system with just a stick, and no tv output? Maybe played from a key-ring and using a earphone…or maybe vibrations…for feedback. Kinda a stealth system you could play without anyone knowing :P
(also would be great for blind people)

“On a side note, a wii nunchuck would make a great enclosure for this project (minus the whole battery changing issue…)”